


Closure

by MoonlightTyger



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:41:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26135179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlightTyger/pseuds/MoonlightTyger
Summary: Three months after Atem's departure, Téa is still missing her friend, and questioning whether or not her stronger feelings were or him or for Yugi.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Closure

**AUTHOR'S FOREWORD:** _Dear readers...while ordinarily I would never ignore or skirt over important historical facts - no matter how uncomfortable they might be - given the fantastical elements of this show, elections that its creator made (or ignored), and theory based on hard genetic fact, I have chosen to ignore a very specific detail about marriages and Pharaohs in Ancient Egypt. Yes,_ that _fact. Please see post-story notes for a more in-depth explanation._

_While I have made references to certain events that took place in the manga and some of the characters' traits do indeed come from background info given_ _only in that timeline,_ this _work is set in the **animé** continuity _only _and thus_ _ **does not comply**_ _with_ The Dark Side of Dimensions _movie. I do not consider this to be disingenuous to the series, as the YGO animé that most fans are familiar with starts with Duelist Kingdom. I also use the original timespan of 3000 years rather than 4Kids' 5000 years. Not only does it make more sense, but Atem's real-life inspiration - the famous King Tut - lived 3300 years ago. As with all my YGO works, I have elected to use the dub names and other select localizations._

_DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to_ Yu-Gi-Oh! _or its characters. This fiction is written purely for pleasure, not for profit._

_Please enjoy!_

* * *

Three months. A short time, when compared to the grander scheme of things, and yet so much could happen: a change of season, a change of classes (for school-goers, anyway), a wonderful summer's vacation, graduation and the beginning of the rest of one's life (if they were at that stage)...

For one Téa Gardner, however, it was none such event of a general sort, but one more personal that had made her last three months a complicated mixture of happy and sad, disbelief and acceptance, longing and guilt, relishing in good memories...and avoiding any and all reminders like the plague. For three months ago today, she had bid a final goodbye to a dear friend.

It wasn't as if she didn't know how lucky she was. It was rather complicated, being friends with one from another time; under normal circumstances - as if much of anything _about_ Atem could be considered "normal" - they could not, and would not, have met at all.

(Then again, perhaps a friendship spanning over three-thousand years was the only way such a relationship _could_ exist; if she had lived in Atem's time, would she even have been in a position to befriend the Pharaoh? Would she have been lucky enough to live in the palace, as Mana and Mahad had, or would she be elsewhere? The chances of that seemed unlikely.)

The selfish part of her wished he had won that fateful final duel; wished he could have stayed...he, their friends, they were only barely getting to know each other - he'd only barely had a chance to know _himself_ \- and then...it was over. Why could he have not won?

And then she would come to her senses, feeling sorely disappointed in herself. How _could_ she? A spirit well past his time, his own life over at only sixteen, and then deprived of rightful peace for another three-thousand years. Had it been her, could she have done that?

He had given his life, his memories, and even his very name...all for the sake of a world he would never live to see.

Atem was one of the least selfish people she knew. It had been time for him to go _home_.

...In practice, however, that did not make it any easier.

Of course, she wasn't alone in missing their ancient friend. It had been a long three months for Yugi and Joey as well (Tristan, though he had been friends with the Pharaoh, had not known him as well as the others). The absence was most noticeable to Yugi, who had grown used to sharing both mind and body with the spirit always hovering around him, a spirit always ready to take over should the slightest danger threaten the young student or their friends. That was the strength Yugi had learned to have.

Occasionally Téa would spot Yugi staring wistfully into the air, mouth upturned but eyes sad. When she asked if he was okay, he would simply shake his head, smile brighter, and say that he was fine.

"He wouldn't want us to be sad," he said. "I mean, I miss him...a lot. But...he needed to go home, Téa. He'd waited three-thousand years. He's had people waiting for him for three-thousand years." There was some sorrow, a longing, in Yugi's voice, as expected...but a peacefulness and a conviction as well. He missed his friend - his brother, for Atem had truly been the brother he never had - but he knew it was time to let go. Knew that they'd _needed_ to let go.

He had always been the most selfless of their group. It was a hidden strength, Yugi's strength...and though Atem had always been a fair leader and kind to his friends, the generosity, the utter _warmth_ , the near-unconditional ability to forgive that Yugi possessed...that had been the part of him that the Pharaoh had learned from.

She _loved_ Yugi. They had been friends since grade school, and their experiences saving the world had only drawn them closer. And for awhile, she thought she was _in_ love with him as well. He had saved her countless times: the maniac in the restaurant, that freak with the bomb on the Ferris wheel...

But then that Shadow Game at Duelist Kingdom had revealed the truth: there was Yugi, and then there was a second, separate being sharing his body, an ancient spirit who had been trapped in the Puzzle for more than 3000 years. This stranger - who looked strangely similar to Yugi as well - had been the one doing the saving. It was something out of a fantasy novel, but they had come to welcome the spirit as their friend in his own right, and not just as an extension of Yugi.

But did that include such a different sort of love, too? She loved Joey and Tristan as well as she did her childhood friend, but they were brothers to her. Was her attraction to Yugi because of _Yugi_ , or was her attraction to him because of the spirit who happened to share his body? These were questions Téa did not quite have an answer for. Had Téa looked at Yugi in such a way prior to him solving the Puzzle and Atem's subsequent appearance? The ancient Egyptian had such a _strong_ personality; it was no wonder Kaiba had been drawn to him as a rival, whereas he had preyed on Yugi. And in the end - while even he had had to admit that Yugi had surpassed Atem - his rivalry was still with the Pharaoh.

(It did not help, however, that Yugi had little interest in dueling Kaiba if the world was not at stake. Yugi played for the sake of the game; Atem had played to _win_.)

They didn't really even have anything to remember Atem by: the Millennium Items were gone, all buried beneath the sands under Egypt. Téa had no regrets about that - they were horrific items, created from a horrific ritual and used to commit as many evil deeds as noble ones - but _some_ memento would have been nice.

She sighed. Now she was just being petty. She turned her attention once again to the TV in front of her. She flipped through the station guides, trying to find something suitably engaging to distract herself with. _Somewhere in Time_ \- well wasn't _that_ coincidental, no thanks... _The King and I -_ even worse, and flip channel... _The Moron's Guide to Mummies..._

Téa shut off the TV with a growl. If the Fates were trying to mock her, they'd succeeded.

She turned her eyes to the window. It wasn't too dark yet for a walk around the neighborhood.

**.:Y:.:Y:.:Y:.**

Domino City really was pleasant this time of year. For a place that had been dubbed "the Weirdsville of the West Coast" by their neighboring states, Téa didn't find it all that strange. Sure, there were some colorful characters — yes, perhaps more than the average city — but as far as she was concerned, such people only added vibrance to their brilliant tapestry of a town. How fitting that such a place would be home to a majority of their impossible adventures.

At the moment, however, the town's aptitude for the eclectic and unusual did nothing to distract her; everything had memories of Atem attached to it. Téa sighed, gazing out at the skyline from her place on the park bench. There would be no reprieves for her tonight.

"Why so glum, my friend?" Téa jumped; that voice! She looked around...had she imagined it?! "Right here."

Téa turned, jaw dropping: Atem stood before her, decked out in a beige-and-gold jacket startlingly similar to the lavender one Yugi owned, though the white complimented the Egyptian's skin tone better. He wore jeans instead of his tunic; a gold pendant with a purple gem inset completed the modern-day look.

"Atem!" Téa leaped up and hugged him. He was solid! "But-but what are you doing here?! I thought you went to the Afterlife!"

"I did," he said, returning the embrace. "I'm still part of it." Téa sobered.

"Oh. Then…"

"I don't have long, I'm afraid—"

"Then you should be visiting Yugi!" she exclaimed. He had been the one closest to Atem, not her. He should be visiting his Aibou. But the Pharaoh shook his head.

"Yugi will be all right for a little while longer," he said. "I came to visit you." Her eyebrows flew up. He came to visit... _her_? Why?

"Come," he said. "There's someone I'd like you to meet." He gestured with his hand, and Téa followed. Standing next to the fountain stood a woman with similarly gold-and-pink-streaked black hair and amethyst eyes, also dressed in modern clothing. A sister, perhaps? Or maybe... _wife_...Téa felt a little sick as she recalled that Egyptian pharaohs often married their sisters, and carefully avoided Atem's gaze. But he seemed to know what she was thinking.

"It's true that parts of my family were incestuous," he responded, offering a somewhat sheepish smile. "It's the way things were back then."

"Sorry," she said, hanging her head a little.

"Don't be," Atem replied. "It's...awkward...to speak of in this day and age, not to mention taboo in practice. I understand your discomfort. In this case, however," — he extended a hand to the woman in question, and she came to stand next to him, tucking under his arm as though she'd done that her whole life— "Téa, I'd like you to meet my daughter, Meketatum." Téa gasped.

"Your... _daughter_?!" The other woman offered a shy smile, giving a short nod. Atem turned his head toward her.

"Meketatum, this is Téa Gardner, whom you have heard so much about." Téa looked at him in surprise; she had expected the other woman would know about Yugi and even Joey...but Atem had told them about _her?_ Meketatum extended her hand with a smile, and slowly, Téa returned the gesture, still in awe.

"Pleasure to meet you," Meketatum said. Her voice was smooth, just like Atem's. "My father has often spoken of the kindnesses you and the others showed him."

"Of course!" Téa replied. "He helped us, too! Helped us a lot. _Saved_ us a lot. It was...the least we could do..."

"It was mutual, from what Father has said. He told us that without you and the others, he never would have been found and would still be sealed away with his memories lost," Meketatum said. "He said you were instrumental in saving the world before, and returning him to us. For that, I must thank you." She smiled shyly again. "I know it can't have been easy to let him go." Téa offered her a sad smile.

"It's not about what we wanted," she said. "It was...the right thing to do."

"Yes, but...sometimes, that makes it that much harder," Meketatum said, lowering her eyes. She turned to Atem. "Father, I will let you two talk. And Miss Gardner-"

"Please, call me Téa," Téa said, and Meketatum smiled.

"As you wish...Téa," the other woman replied. "Please know that the Veil between our planes is not always so wide as we think. We are never far; we will watch over you and cheer you on from this Side until the day comes that you join us...which I hope will not be for a great many years yet." She smiled, then winked. "It's the least we can do." With a nod at her father, she removed herself to let him and his friend visit further. Atem turned back to Téa with a sad sort of smile playing on his lips; somehow, she knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"She was born after I was sealed in the Puzzle," he explained, and something in Téa's heart twisted. "Sometime before our final battle, I had expressed...disappointment, that my father's line would not continue. I was prevailed upon by an old friend to allow her to carry my child. I didn't know if we'd succeeded until I came to the Afterlife." Téa blinked, feeling a pricking behind her eyes. Three-thousand _years_...and his daughter had only just now met her father.

...Had Yugi known?

"Set raised her in my stead," Atem said then, looking a few yards behind him. Only now did she notice where a far more tan (and far less bull-headed) 'Seto Kaiba' stood several yards away with Meketatum and a modern Mana, returning the smile his cousin sent him. The pricking behind Téa's eyes grew stronger...and then they were spilling over. Embarrassed, she rubbed at her face.

"Téa?" The deep voice held concern, and a bronze hand held out a surprisingly solid handkerchief. "Téa...why are you crying?"

"I'm...I've just been...so selfish..." she said, shaking her head. "I...we've...just...missed you. A lot. And it's not _right_...you have so many people who have missed you a lot and for so much longer...I'm sorry."

"For what?" Atem asked. "For caring? Goodbyes — especially the kind that we have taken, where we know it may be a very long time before we can see each other again — are never easy. You and I are from different _eras_ , Téa...we 'should' never have been friends in the first place. I count my blessings that I was able to meet all of you and know you for as long as I did."

"I do, too! I know we're lucky to have met," Téa clarified. "It's just...I wish..." She shook her head. She couldn't say it, couldn't admit it. Especially not to Atem.

"...A part of you wishes I had won that duel?" he asked gently.

"I'm sorry," she sniffed, wiping at her eyes. "You sacrificed everything to save them, to save _us_...it's wrong of me to even think it! And I..."

And how likely was it, really? She felt so silly. Of course one of a pharaoh's first concerns would have been to provide an heir. Could she have really thought he might have had no one else at all in ancient Egypt?

How self-centered. How naive.

"Téa," he said, touching her cheek and forcing her to look at him. She saw no awkwardness, no anger. Only love. "You and I...are from different times...different eras. My role...was to _protect_. You are a caring, brave young woman, and one day you will find someone who will protect you and care for you in return...someone from _your_ era."

"You... _knew?!_ " Oh, if only the ground could open up and swallow her _now!_

"...I did," he said honestly. "I wondered at first if it wasn't because you believed I was simply another side of Yugi, but when it became clear that we were separate beings, it also became clear which of us brought out those stronger feelings. While I could not remember my bride at the time, I knew from history itself that my position as Pharaoh made it very likely I had one." A pause. "I did my best not to give you any wrong impressions."

"...You didn't," she said, shaking her head. She felt so stupid. Of course he had been married. He was right, of course. "I'm sorry...and please don't think I don't value your friendship! I…"

"Téa, your friendship has always been very pure," he replied, looking her straight in the eyes. "I never questioned that. Not once. I value it greatly. And _always_ will." He smiled at her, and despite herself — despite the heartache and embarrassment — she found herself returning the expression.

"I'm glad I got to meet your daughter," she said honestly, casting her gaze to where the other three Egyptians still stood some yards away. Meketatum waved.

"I'm glad you did, too," Atem said, smiling fondly at his family. He looked at the sky. "It grows dark," he said. "Come, we'll walk you home."

" ...I can take myself home…" Though she had to admit...she wasn't ready to say goodbye to Atem again so soon. Even a few more minutes would be welcome...

"What kind of Pharaohs would we be to let a lady walk home on her own?" Set said.

"Whoa!" Téa jumped. How had they closed the distance between herself and Atem so rapidly?! He laughed.

"A privilege of the Afterworlds," Atem said. "Do not worry Téa - and the cameras have nothing on us."

"It's nice to see you again, Téa," Mana greeted her, reaching out a hand. Téa returned the gesture.

"You, too," she replied. Set's greeting was far less bubbly, but still kind, and Téa found herself yet again astonished by the personality differences between him and their classmate Set _o_.

"I'm sorry, Cousin, but we're running out of time if you still want to visit Yugi," Set said then. With a sigh and a sallow smile, Atem nodded.

"Yes, of course...let's be on our way."

**.:Y:.:Y:.:Y:.**

The walk back to Téa's home was bitter and sweet and entirely too short. Some laughs and some reminiscing, the occasional interjection by Mana or Meketatum or Set…but all too soon, they had reached her front door.

"I still wish you could stay," she murmured, eyes downcast. The lump in her throat had returned. To her surprise, Atem opened his arms and pulled her in close for a tight embrace.

"I miss all of you too," he said. "We're never far. I promise you that."

"It's not fair," she said, sniffing. "Your own life was so short...and now we get to live ours because of you…"

"Because of you, too," Atem replied. "Without you I wouldn't have been able to really defeat Zorc. I may have begun the fight, but _we_ finished it." She held him tighter, tears falling silently onto his shoulder.

"It's not the same without you," she said. At last, after a few more moments, she pulled away. Yugi needed to see him, too.

"Our time grows short," Atem said. Téa was surprised to see a brightness in his own eyes. "I love all of you. Take care of each other."

"You, too," she said.

A blink, and they were gone.

**.:Y:.:Y:.:Y:.**

"Hey, Téa?" Yugi's voice brought her back to the present (school was _so_ pedantic after the adventures they'd had!).

"Hey...is something wrong?" she asked, noticing the odd expression on his face. He stopped.

"Not, 'wrong' exactly, um...and this is going to sound strange, but...you...heard from Atem last night?" he asked, and her eyes widened.

"Yeah, he...came to visit," she said. "He...couldn't stay very long. He introduced me to his daughter..."

"You got to meet her, too?" Yugi asked, excited. "Yeah...she's really nice. He didn't even know he had her until after he walked through the doors. He thought she was a sister he didn't know about or something…"

"Really?" How sad...

Anyway..." — Yugi reached into his pocket — "he asked me to give you one of these." He pulled out a handkerchief and opened it up to reveal four gold rings, two with gems inset and two plain...the very same ones Atem had worn during his reign as Pharaoh.

"He said there's four — enough for us each to have one," Yugi explained. "I don't think Joey or Tristan will like the ones with gems in them, so I thought you and I could take those." A pause. "He says he misses everyone and he's sorry he only had a chance to visit you and me."

Téa nodded. "He said the same thing to me." She took one of the gem-inset rings from the handkerchief and slipped it onto her pointer. It felt right. A physical reminder of their friend, and the bond they all shared with him and each other.

As she and Yugi finished walking to school, Téa was surprised to find she felt...good. Unburdened. She missed Atem as they all did, but she felt privileged to have seen him one last time...even more so to meet his family.

She had received the closure she needed.  
  


* * *

_  
AUTHOR'S NOTES:_

(These are somewhat lengthy, so please bear with me. This is also cross-posted to Fanfiction.net, and a full bibliography for this fic is available on the DeviantArt version.)

I hope everyone sounds and behaves adequate; this fic was actually started years ago, but it's still my first time really writing for any of the _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ characters.

Both the concepts of Domino City being on the West Coast and it being a sort of magnet for All That Is Unusual are ones that LuckyLadybug created...and have been used with her blessing ;)

Initially I was all set to write this with certain historical details in place, squick and all. It is well-known that the Pharaohs of Egypt practiced brother-sister marriages. For those fans who are still unaware, Takahashi has said that the inspiration for Atem was none other than the famous King Tut. Given Atem's position (Pharaoh), it is not implausible to suspect that he was married, and if I were to go by historical fact, he would have been married to a full- or half-sister. Canon states that he was Aknamkanon's only _son_ ; it says nothing of daughters, and King Tut was married to a half-sister a few years his senior.

However, new genetic tests have also proven that the 'Golden Boy of Egypt' was malaric, disfigured, and had a clubbed foot (he walked with a cane...at nine years old). These are ailments that many researchers believe were a result of Egyptian royalty's inbreeding. While ordinarily I would never skirt over historical fact, given that Atem shares none of these traits with his real-life inspiration, I have elected to forego that historical fact in favor of the genetic evidence that in real life would more than likely negate it.

A.k.a., Atem's family was not quite so incestuous. Given that Takahashi also skirted over little factoids like those I just mentioned, I do not feel it is disingenuous to the series for me to do the same.

\- One can make an argument that Yugi is Atem's reincarnation and it wouldn't necessarily be wrong, but I personally prefer them as ancestor and descendant; I adore the idea of Atem watching over a distant grandson or grandnephew, and Yugi-tachi being protected, cheered on and encouraged by those on the Other Side. Similarly, Kaiba and Bakura are distant descendants of their own Ancient Egyptian counterparts.

\- The Egyptian line of succession typically passed from father-to-son, or occasionally brothers. I originally wanted to give Atem a son, but in order to keep within canon guidelines and history as best as I could, I gave him a daughter instead (finding female Egyptian names is a pain in the neck, lemme tell ya). Tut also had two daughters (sadly, neither of which lived beyond 'toddler-hood').

\- "Meketaten" is the name of the second daughter of Tut's father and his queen Nefertiti; I changed the 'n' to an 'm' to reflect Atem's own, and the 'e' to a 'u' as an homage to Tut's full name, 'Tutankhamun' (which apparently was also originally 'Tutankh _aten_ ', which means something like 'living image of Aten'; Tut changed his name when he reverted Egypt back to being worshippers of _Amun_. Aten appears to be the deity from which Atem's name is derived...there's a LOT of _real_ Egyptology that goes into _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ and it is AWESOME).

Thank you all for reading - leave a review if you enjoyed! Keep on Rockin' in 2020 and stay safe out there!  
~MoonlightTyger


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